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Neuromancer

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.

Burning Chrome

William Gibson's dark visions of computer cowboys, bio-enhanced soldiers of fortune, and hi-tech lowlifes have won unprecedented praise. Included here are some of the most famous short fiction and novellas by the author of Count Zero and Neuromancer.

Pattern Recognition

Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.

Spook Country

Bobby Chombo is a "producer" and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry, an investigative journalist, has been told to find him.

All Tomorrow's Parties

Rydell is on his way back to near-future San Francisco. His job has him convinced that his career is going nowhere, but his friend Laney, phoning from Tokyo, says there's more interesting work for him in Northern California. And there is, although it will eventually involve his former girlfriend, a Taoist assassin, the secrets Laney has been hacking out of the depths of DatAmerica, the CEO of the PR firm that secretly runs the world and the apocalyptic technological transformation of, well, everything.

Zero History

Hollis Henry worked for the global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend once before. She never meant to repeat the experience. Milgrim is even more thoroughly owned by Bigend. He's worth owning for his useful gift of seeming to disappear in almost any setting. baked into bone, entirely experimental, to show for it. Garreth has a passion for extreme sports. Garreth isn't owned by Bigend at all.

The Peripheral

Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do - a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her.

The Difference Engine

The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is a prime example of the steampunk sub-genre; It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer called Engines. The fierce summer heat and pollution have driven the ruling class out of London and the resulting anarchy allows technology-hating Luddites to challenge the intellectual elite.

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.

The Diamond Age

Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.

Altered Carbon

In the 25th century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person's consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve") making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Blade Runner

It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment: find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!

Reamde

Richard Forthrast created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game. But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe - and Richard is at ground zero.

In celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fras and suurs prepare to venture outside the concent's gates - opening them wide at the same time to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fra, Erasmus eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected". But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the perilous brink of cataclysmic change.

Zodiac

Sangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt to Scotch. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places.

Interface

In this now-classic thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a shocking tale with an all-too plausible premise. There's no way William A. Cozzano can lose the upcoming presidential election. He's a likable midwestern governor with one insidious advantage - an advantage provided by a shadowy group of backers.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

Seveneves: A Novel

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

Dune

Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

Hardwired

Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals.

Necronomicon

Originally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and '30s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome brings together all of Lovecraft's harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were when first released.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Jason Taverner - world-famous talk show host and man-about-town - wakes up one day to find that no one knows who he is - including the vast databases of the totalitarian government. And in a society where lack of identification is a crime, Taverner has no choice but to go on the run with a host of shady characters, including crooked cops and dealers of alien drugs. But do they know more than they are letting on? And just how can a person's identity be erased overnight?

Quicksilver: Book One of The Baroque Cycle

In which Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe -- in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.

Publisher's Summary

The award-winning William Gibson goes beyond science fiction to the broader mainstream fiction audience. His unique world features multinational corporations and high-tech outlaws vying for power, traveling the computer-generated universe.

Gibson's books contain a polyglot of races and accents. Davis is the perfect choice for these works as his ear for accents is nothing short of amazing. He's one of the few narrators who can manage southern, hispanic, and african-american accents and not force me to cringe.

Would you consider the audio edition of Mona Lisa Overdrive to be better than the print version?

The narrator delivers an outstanding performance. His voice, rythm and style are the best I've heard on Audible so far. He gives the characters distinct voices without sounding cheesy. Each character speaks with a unique dialect too (American, British, Japanese) and the Japanese words are pronounced perfectly.

Any additional comments?

Normally I am not into writing reviews, however this performance of one of my favorite books demands it.

Didn't think I could like anything as much as I liked Neuromancer, but this I like equally as much. The way this author balances entertainment with literary value, with poetry, it's just too amazing. I can't fathom it. And what an awesome ending!

“The world hadn’t ever had so many moving parts or so few labels.” ― William Gibson, Mona Lisa Overdrive

There is something about Gibson that keeps me coming back. Part of it is how, like PKD, he seems to always have a sense of what is around the next two corners. Not just the objects. No. The textures and smells and ambiguities too. It is like Gibson doesn't just have foresight, he has foresmell and foretaste. Anyway, even with that, this wasn't his best book and not in the strong half of the Sprawl trilogy.

Thread Two: Angie Mitchell from Book 2 (Count Zero) of the Sprawl trilogy seeks to find lost boyfriend while dealing with the addiction and costs of Simstim fame.

Thread Three: Mona a innocent prostitute is sucked into a crime world where she is made to look like Angie as a piece in an abduction attempt on Angie.

Thread Four: Slick Henry and friends care for the comatose body of the "Count" Bobby Newmark from the 'Count Zero'.

One note. I did appreciate how diligent Gibson is in building strong female characters. There are just as many ass kicking females as damsels in distress. Gibson doesn't flirt with feminist ideas. He is able to incorporate strong women naturally. It isn't decoration or an after thought. It appears as natural to him as writing about fabric or fashion.

Gibson weaves these various plots and characters together and it all only frays a bit toward the end. I get where he was trying to go with everything, it just lost a bit of focus, the resolution wasn't great, the pay-off was subpar. But still I know when Gibson writes another book, I'll get sucked back in because the Matrix/Cyberspace/Sprawl worlds Gibson builds feel bright enough to attract and worn enough to comfort.

Neuromancer, count zero, mona lisa overdriveGreat depth in the story,very aartistic and powerful writing, great narration by Davis for the last two (I didn't listen to Neuromancer but read it instead and it's different narrator)

Gibson is clearly a top rate author. What a great mix of plot, characters, and action. Narration continued to be top rate. Not for everyone but if you think it may be worth it based on the audible description, then you will love it. 6 stars easy!

In Mona Lisa Overdrive, the third and final novel in William Gibson???s Sprawl trilogy, it???s been seven years since Angie Mitchell (from Count Zero) was taken out of Maas Biolabs and now she???s a famous simstim star who???s trying to break her designer drug habit. But a jealous Lady 3Jane plans to kidnap Angie and replace her with a cheap prostitute named Mona Lisa who???s addicted to stimulants and happens to look like Angie.

In a dilapidated section of New Jersey, Slick Henry makes large animated robotic sculptures out of scrap metal. He owes Kid Afrika a favor, so now he has to hide the comatose body of Bobby Newmark (aka ???Count Zero???). Bobby is jacked into an Aleph where he???s got some secret project going on. A Cleveland girl named Cherry Chesterfield is Bobby???s nurse.

Kumiko is the daughter of a Japanese Yakuza crime boss. Her father has sent her to live in London while the Yakuza war is going on. There she meets Gibson???s most iconic character, Molly Millions, who???s going by the name Sally Shears. Molly is being blackmailed by Lady 3Jane, so Kumiko inadvertently gets dragged into the kidnapping plot.

Mona Lisa Overdrive contains several exciting action scenes which feature kidnappings, shoot-outs, helicopter escapes, remote-controlled robot warriors, collapsing catwalks, and falling refrigerators. These are loosely connected by the continuation and conclusion of the AI plot which began in Neuromancer. I wasn???t completely satisfied with the sketchy ending or the wacky reveal on the last page, but that???s okay. I was mainly reading Mona Lisa Overdrive for the style, anyway.

So much of Gibson???s style and success stems from the mesmerizing world he???s built ??? a future Earth in which national governments have been replaced by large biotech companies. Japan is modern and glitzy and much of the former United States has fallen into decay. By the time you get to Mona Lisa Overdrive (don???t even attempt to read it before reading both Neuromancer and Count Zero), you???re feeling rather comfortable (or as comfortable as is possible to feel) in this world, so the setting lacks the force it had in the previous novels. In Mona Lisa Overdrive, you???ll visit London, but it seems to be stuck in the 20th century, so it feels instantly (and a little disappointingly) familiar.

But Gibson manages to keep things fresh and highlight his unique style by introducing new characters and delving deep into their psyches. Even minor characters are works of art, such as Eddy, Mona???s low-class scheming pimp, and Little Bird, who earned that moniker because of his weird hairdo. Even when the plots don???t satisfy, it???s entertaining enough just to hang out with Gibson???s unforgettable characters. The exception is Kumiko, who has little personality and seems to exist mainly to remind us that Japan has surpassed America, and for an excuse to show us a new bit of cool technology (Colin, the chip-ghost).

In 1989, Mona Lisa Overdrive was nominated for, but did not win, the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. It lacks the impact of its prequels, but it???s still a stylish piece of work and not to be missed if you???re a fan of William Gibson. I listened to the audio version narrated by Jonathan Davis. He is excellent, as always, and I recommend this version to audio readers. You may have to work at Neuromancer on audio if you???re not familiar with this world and its slang, but by the time you get to Mona Lisa Overdrive, that problem is long gone. (Originally posted at Fantasy Literature)

So I made it to the end. Having begun this trilogy with Neuromancer many many years ago, and finally finishing it up now, has left the entire Sprawl series a bit disjointed. Conversely and oddly enough though, my enjoyment of the series actually increased per book. I think I approached the book the wrong way though and honestly for someone new to Gibson's writing style, it's probably not the most accessible entry. It could be due to Gibson's tightening and improving writing, my own maturity, and my own knowledge of how to handle his writing, that leads me to say that Mona Lisa Overdrive, the third in the series, is actually the best of the 3. (Count Zero close behind though). Mona Lisa Overdrive (MLO) attempts to tie together the previous books, and gives some surprising levels of backstory to things like the whole Tessier Ashpool history. I was surprised in a good way to see such a blanket laid out history.

What really gets to me with Gibson is his use of confusing names, for people/places/events. People have multiple names and handles, often many of which don't come off sounding like names or places. I make note of this because if you make the mistake of listening to this trilogy via audiobook, this makes it utterly confusing. In doing so I heavily suggest you still grab a copy of the the physical novels. It makes reading them so..so much easier. I can't stress that part enough. Countless times I've been left baffled as to the events and characters because names were mentioned and I had no clue who or what was being referred to.

Anyway like the previous Gibson books, we're giving a menagerie of characters all of which you can surmise will be linked in some way by the end of the book. Likewise there's a few characters that return in MLO, continuing the link from Count Zero. Out of all of the books, this one is the "tightest" in terms of story. What I mean by that, is that to me, it follows more logical, progressive events. Things happen, and people react to those things in a seemingly reasonable fashion. This may have been the case in the previous books, but again, before I found out really "how to read Gibson" it may have been lost on me. Of course there are moments here in MLO that seem to string the reader along, not really providing answers as to what the characters are doing, but just following them. I'm not a big fan of this style after a while as it comes off as very ad hoc and "off the cuff".

The characters of MLO are actually memorable (imagine that!) Maybe except Yumiko, they all have a real sort of feel that plays into the cyberpunk motifs. Yumiko, comes off to me as very flat, boring and honestly not very plot centric. Angie Mitchell, who is a carry over from the 2nd book, has rocketed to fame ( though we never really know how or why this is) has a secret drug filled life (what celeb doesn't) and is making her return to the lime light, but apparently someone wants to keep her drugged and in a stupor. What separates her from any other, is that she can jack into the matrix without any wires or connecting head gear. I assume this has to do with the fact that her daddy used to work at one of the big Pharm corps, and had her head tested on and inserted some weird cancer like cells and stuff in her brain. This is literally what I gleaned from the previous book.

I'm going to digress a bit here and begin a small rant. I've referenced above that by MLO I've learned how to "read" Gibson. What I've meant by this is that I've learned the art of reading a book/chapter synopsis. Seriously, If I didn't own the physical copy of the book so I could actually see the names, and descriptions, and have online resources for a synopsis. I probably would NOT have gotten to book III. Nor would I have enjoyed it if I did. There's a few really good sites out there that give character bios that really go a long way in helping understand what the characters are doing, how they interact, and what their motives are. Looking back, I'm not sure if I would have pieced it together that Sally Sheers was the same woman from book one, Molly Millions. Gibson never tells you anything out right. All of his hints and explanations are done in such a round about way of description that unless you are really focusing and (for me) making notes about descriptions of characters, a lot of it can pass over your head. Again audio listening to these is not kind to this series.

Anyway back on track to the characters. We have another female character (thinking about it now, this is a pretty pro femme fatale cast!) Mona. While angie is a glamorous superstar, Mona is a seedy prostitute who has fallen in with some douche named Eddy who think's he's made a really good deal in trying to pimp her out, but is pretty much double crossed and most likely killed. Good riddence. What strikes me as odd, and I'm sort of just coming to this realization now, is that out of all of the books, MLO actually has very very little time in the Matrix space. Most of the book takes place in the real world. And I actually think that's a good thing. To me, this book didn't really give off too much of a cyberpunk vibe, or maybe "lo-fi" cyberpunk.

What sort of turns me off to the entire story line of the Sprawl series, is the constant linking of these spiritual gods. Now while I get the use of religious cults and sects in cyberpunk, the whole voodoo thing just seems so random. So apparently after the two AI Wintermute and Neuromancer fused, voodoo african gods spread over the net. lol...wut? And apparently everyone worships them now. I had no idea who or what "Bridgette" was. It just...seems forced. If they were there from the beginning...sure I would have been more accepting but the fact that they just appear is just weird.

One gripe for me is ( and this may again fall on the audio style) is that the characters who are mostly all female, all have a supporting retinue of supporting characters. This makes it a bit confusing, especially going towards the end when they begin to intermingle. I was often finding myself going back and seeing which "butler" was originally with who, etc... The exception to this is the AI for Yumiko, Collin. Who btw is my favorite character....I want a Collin-bro. One character that also stands out is the AI, called Continuity. It's ( I think...) Angie's house "library" assistant. It's sort of like Amazon Echo I reckon. But more about keeping records and keeping track of life events relating to it's owner. It's pretty cool, and is one of the surprisingly few bits of technology actually in the book.

As stated before the book doesn't really give off a super over the top Cyberpunk vibe as the previous two books did. This one is more subtle, which I don't think is a bad thing. One bit that I did enjoy is the backstory of Tessier-Ashpool. More importantly I liked the way that Gibson gave it to us. Instead of just telling us (Gibson would never do that)... He presents it in a way that Angie is watching a documentary, and having it be through the eyes of sort of a director of the documentary. It's hard to explain but it comes off rather interesting. It's sort of like a narrative of how the director shot the documentary.

The climax is at the end of the book, Sally/Molly comes back to her tough as nails persona in a big way, which made me happy to see. She came off as just a bitch earlier, but once the crap hit the fan, she stepped up and took no shit, putting 3Jane in her place. Oh and on a side note, the fact that Bobby (also from the previous book) is in a coma for literally the entire book, was a pretty cool idea. I figured they'd have him be the main character, or come out of the Aleph all Neo like and omnipotent. Nope, He was knocked out the entire book, and that just lent itself to being something unique. Now that being said...the end of this book is...just...anti-climatic. We're all squared away with 3Jane back, looking to take out Angie, and revenge herself on Molly etc... Great battle lined up, the players meet..and then.... nothing? They just forgive her and move on? I'm not sure if there's some sort of hidden message that I missed, but I doubt it.. The book ends pretty flatly, but getting there was a fun ride. For a bit, I was genuinely interested in how the characters were going to meet, and their impact on the story. Aside from the bizarre naming conventions he confusingly uses for characters and places in the Sprawl trilogy, I enjoy this last one. I honestly will probably never read any of them again really, but MLO sticks out as being the best of the worst so to speak. In comparsion to characters like Case from Neuromancer who I had absolutely no vested interest in, these characters here in MLO seem much more fleshed out and actually relatable.

I can't say I'd currently recommend the series to others truth me told. If this were 1994...sure, I'd be all over it... but the books don't unfortunately offer enough ground breaking material to warrant a full read through. While I may suggest reading them out of respect for the genre, and it's foundations, you can honestly find better scifi/ cyberpunk else where.

I read Neuromancer many years ago, found it hard work but intriguing nonetheless. So when I saw another one of Gibson's books appear in one of Audible's special offers I though why not? Unusually for me I just assumed this was stand-alone and I think this took something away from it. If you're considering reading this without the other two I would say stop and get the others first.

Gibson has an interesting writing style. He hints at things often leaving the reader to fill in the background for themselves. Combined with this and the fact that me memory had little of Neuromancer left and nothing of the second book at all made this hard going. I gave it four stars because that mistake was mine but I probably only got 3 stars enjoyment out of it . . . if that makes sense!

Gibson is a clever writer though. I like the fact that he doesn't feel the need to handhold me through everything. The world of the Sprawl is not a pleasant one. The characters all have a detachment from their world borne of its nature. This most certainly isn't easy reading or for anyone who likes to warm to noble heroes. I'd also agree with some of the other reviewers that the pace and tonality of the narration, while it did fit the book very well, was on the slow and monotone side for me.

Despite all this, I will in a few years re-visit this, starting from the beginning of the trilogy of course. It's clever stuff, well thought out, and I want to do it justice next time!

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Ch3nz

Harlow, United Kingdom

9/14/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Excellent"

After listening to the neuromancer, I had to listen to Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Although different narrator (so need a few chapters to get used to), really enjoyed it.

As usual for Gibson it takes a few chapters to really understand what is going on, then as ur figuring it out it picks up pace, and as u finally work it out it concludes. Master author.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mr. C. A. Martin

Surrey, UK

1/18/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"great gibson"

if you liked neuro and count this won't fail to interest, good end to an innovative trikogy

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Benjamin

STOKE ON TRENT, United Kingdom

10/25/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"not as good as his others but still a must read"

not as good as his others but still a must readnot as good as his others but still a must read

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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